1961 – 339 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg

Built as a furniture store, NEFCO, during Portage Avenue’s retail heyday, the building had a narrow concrete clad facade to the street as it was flanked by other buildings. According to local historian Christian Cassidy, “The store was a big deal at the time given its size and location. Billed as Western Canada’s largest furniture showroom with around 30,000 sq feet of sales floor over seven floors. The grand opening took place on September 7, 1961 with Mayor Juba cutting the ribbon.” The only windows on the facade were at street level and the top floor. After the company moved location, this building went through many tenants and uses until 1990.

At that time, a new owner opened the side façade up adding a curtain glazed façade in a 60s modernist style. This faces on to a park created after the demolition of the Sharpe Block and Bettes Block in the early 1980s. The use of blue on the panels beneath the windows ties this newer façade in nicely with the Air Canada Building of 1985 which also faces on to the small park. The home of the Aboriginal People’s Television Network since 1999 who have also taken over the former Canadian Bank of Commerce next door as a studio space. Both buildings were redesigned internally and linked externally by a sculptural element in a project led by Prairie Architects.

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